Office work VS Work in coworking for a small team

    My name is Leonid, I already wrote a review of coworking in Moscow and St. Petersburg on Habré. Partly, the review went to the side of the difference between the work of a freelancer in coworking and at home. Now I want to compare exactly the office and coworking for a small team. At the moment I am working on a content site related to discounts and sales (unfortunately, the name is too early to say). Not to be confused with the coupon site, in our case we only inform people about interesting promotions, and do not sell coupons. So, I got a small team, 4 people, including me. For a while we rented a separate office, and then moved to coworking. I want to share my thoughts on the difference in these formats with specific examples.

    To begin with, when you already have a team, options with cafes, anti-cafes and apartments disappear immediately. At least it’s hard to talk, and in an apartment you don’t sit freely together. The first thing I did was rent an office. The project is based in St. Petersburg. For 4 people, I decided that it would be optimal somewhere around 40-50 meters. Immediately faced with the fact that in new beautiful buildings there are almost no small offices. As a result, I found an office in the business center “Troitsky” in the center at 42 meters for 42,000 rubles. The Internet was added here, drinking water came out at 50. To be honest, it was a very dull place.

    In addition to my main tasks, I had to take on the role of office manager. The current Internet was no good, I had to change the provider, we lost a week, and this is after checking in. How many times I had to go to the administration myself to call a cleaner - I don’t remember anymore, despite the fact that we paid separately for the cleaning. In general, some everyday issues took up a lot of time, and I kept thinking how to delegate it. Yes, and had to pay in advance for 2 months. In the neighboring offices there were some insurance companies, the names of which I had never heard, some service centers - in general, it was always uncomfortable in the corridor, especially when their customers arrived.

    Do not even say that you could have found better for that kind of money, it is simply not possible. Shoveled everything - either more expensive, or not in the center, or a Class C building and also not in the center. The main plus that we convinced ourselves - “but its own separate place” - in the end turned out to be an empty phrase. We brought some furniture (cupboard, kettle, microwave, hanger) and as a result, our place turned into four tables and that's it. 42 meters is not as much as it might seem at first. And most importantly, no sense of IT, innovation, etc. We turned into some kind of sharashkin cantor in the attic. The worst thing is, it affected health. The drive and interest in work began to disappear, the productivity of the guys deteriorated for no apparent reason - this bothered me the most.

    And then I decided to radically change the office and took 4 places in coworking. In St. Petersburg, I know two big full-fledged coworking - this is the Action Zone and 404 Hub. I was in both and imagined what the workflow looks like in these coworkings. If you work alone, you may like the Action Zone more, it’s modern, creative - mostly single people work, well, there’s a specific landing, randomly scattered seats around the perimeter. If you work in a team of at least two people, then you will not find a better place than 404 Hub.

    As I said, it was important for me to land the team, so I rented a place in 404 Hub. Compared to an office in a business center, it’s just heaven and earth, the difference is enormous. I understand that for one person coworking can be expensive, but for a team of 2,3,4 people to take an office is an epic fail. Firstly, four places cost me 36,000 rubles (including the Internet, a water cooler, cleaning, no deposits). We had all the necessary amenities, a kitchen a stone's throw away, a stylish meeting room, which we used all the time, no one limited (as I understand it is still free, then 1 hour a day, and even then, if no one is booking, at least sit there all day ) Our places were separated by partitions - so we sat in “our zone” and there was no sense of public space.

    But the most important, an undeniable advantage is that around us there were many people like us. These are 25-30 year old guys who are engaged in web projects. We were in our party - and it was very nice. Not everyone is super sociable, most of them still came to work, but anyway, when you have someone to chat with in your spare time, and even with a colleague, this is a huge plus.

    Another very significant moment is Monday morning. This is the very feeling that completely changes the perception of the workflow. Let me explain when you come to a small room after the weekend, where you are sitting with four of the same people, you have to somehow additionally cheer yourself to tune in to work. And when you come to a huge space, where a lot of people are gathering slowly and begin to work and communicate on something, it automatically motivates you, as it immediately sets a cheerful mood. I recommend to everyone.

    Also popular now: